> Has anyone climbed anything recently instead of just talking about mountains?

Tuesday I was having dinner with my boss, his girlfriend and
her brother (Mark) who was visiting from California. During
the course of dinner it came out that part of the reason for
Mark's visit was to climb Bierstadt. Lacking any partners
to attempt the climb and with my climbing background, it was
suggested that I take Thursday off from work to help Mark
climb Bierstadt. "Well, okay. Twist my arm."

So on Thursday Mark and I set off to climb Bierstadt and to
tackle the infamous willows. I had climbed Bierstadt in
late January and the conditions between January and March
were substantial. In January, the snow level was such that
everybody was using the boardwalk to get across the willows
and snowshoes weren't even needed because of the well-packed
trail. On Thursday, the boardwalk was completely covered
and there was no existing snow-packed trail. As a result,
Mark and I spent three hours snowshoeing across deep snow in
the willows. About one mile and 400' in three hours. That's rough.

After crossing the willows, we continued up the hill. After
a couple more hours and at an elevation of 13,000' we called
it quits. We were somewhat concerned about the snow clouds
that were beginning to gather around Square Top and neither
one of was too excited about the possibility of having to
rebreak the trail due to new snowfall. On the way back,
wind-blown snow had filled in some of our tracks, but due to
the way wind-blown snow packs, we didn't sink much if at
all. Interesting. But note that your results may vary . . .